Grant to help UNH study climate change on roads, bridges

DURHAM, N.H. (AP) — A $750,000 National Science Foundation grant will help University of New Hampshire researchers examine how climate affects road and bridge construction.

Road and bridge engineers look to climate data when designing and constructing projects, but researchers say data representing the changing nature of climate has largely eluded them, in part because of its complexity.

Jo Daniel, a researcher and associate professor of civil engineering at UNH, said if climate is changing, using weather data from 20 years ago is not going to represent what the road will experience in the next 20 years.

The four-year grant will fund the creation of the Infrastructure and Climate Network, or ICNet, to support the integration of climate science and engineering research.